Flames of the Dead
Monitors were scattered everywhere, broadcasting the midterm evaluation that Korea Hero Academy had put out for public viewing. The footage would be edited and released to broadcasting stations, or uploaded to programs and YouTube and the like.
"Team Leader, you've got to see this!"
"What is it?"
The team leader walked over to the screen. On it was a boy who looked like something out of a romance manga—a boy wearing a black hoodie under a white blazer, so strikingly handsome that even another man had to admit it.
And that boy curled his lips into a wicked smile and struck the distant Minotaur with a black sword.
-Kuooooooo!
The Minotaur charged, maddened with rage. The boy dove toward his teammates up ahead.
-H-hey!
-Toss me.
The boy flashed a mischievous grin. Leaping high with air-walking, he jumped a second time.
"Wow, that's genuinely evil."
"Did you see that midair platform? Some kind of wind-related talent?"
"Isn't it ice?"
The people chattering about the boy soon fell silent.
The battle had begun.
A Minotaur wreathed in flame was no ordinary monster. Gamers called it a quasi-boss-class beast—the kind of creature that belonged in a second-year exam. And yet the ones facing it now were the strongest of the first-years, the students hailed as the Golden Cohort.
-Urooooooo!!!!
The Minotaur roared. Park Unhyeok, Kim Ara, and Kim Seohyun immediately raised their weapons and charged.
BOOOOOM!
The Minotaur's fist collided head-on with Kim Ara's greatsword. A five-meter monster against a human who didn't even reach two meters. Anyone looking on would have assumed the former would crush the latter outright.
KWA-BOOM!
The winner of the contest of strength was Kim Ara.
-Kuor?
The Minotaur staggered back—two full steps.
Terrifying, as always.
Cold sweat ran down my back. I hadn't given Kim Ara much attention, and yet she had grown all on her own. The foundation Paewang had built into her was so colossal that I had deliberately kept my hands off her development. She was more than capable of handling herself.
Whoosh—.
Kim Ara turned her head. Her violet eyes blazed, as though they held fire within them.
Angry, is she?
Come to think of it, I had been neglecting her lately. But the look vanished as quickly as it came. A fire-wreathed Minotaur was no pushover.
FWOOSH!
The flames swelled outward. The Minotaur shrieked.
-Urooooooo!
The fire split apart. Burning figures of flame took shape—small humanoids, blazing and seething. There were three of them.
"Hmph, I shall take two of the flames myself."
"Then I'll take the main body."
"I'll be Lee Seoha."
"……"
The speakers, in order: Park Unhyeok, Kim Seohyun, Kim Ara.
Erciel narrowed her eyes at me.
"Instead of chatting, how about knocking them down fast and catching up? Getting played exactly as intended like this is infuriating, but fighting alongside you while toting this cow around would be suicide, Seoha."
"Fair point."
The moment I agreed with her, the glares sharpened.
"But what if we get ambushed while we're attacking?"
"Then we die, and you die too, I suppose."
"Is that so?"
"And prepare yourself for that outcome."
Erciel shot me a glare. Apparently I was going to be chased around for the entire survival exam.
What is this feeling?
A strange sense of déjà vu washed over me.
I fixed my gaze on the Minotaur. Deep inside my body, Yeokcheon stirred—the Heaven-Defying power reacting, commanding me to kill the Minotaur.
I had felt this sensation a few times before. And its targets had almost always been—
Demons.
My eyes narrowed. A demon, inside the Tower of Ordeals?
Was that the trick they pulled back then?
There was something I could guess at. Among the Seven Evils, the Fierce Star had once attacked Korea Hero Academy directly. And the punchline was that even with him moving personally, all he managed to release was a small band of Villains—no matter how much interference he suffered from the Boundary, it was almost comical.
Toppling or corrupting the Tower of Ordeals outright is beyond them.
That was impossible. It would take an 'Apostle'—a rank above the Seven Evils—to even attempt it. Which meant the Tower had been partially corrupted.
I stared hard at the front. Twenty minutes had passed since the battle began.
The flame-wreathed Minotaur finally fell to the students' hands.
"Damn it. Since when is a cow this stubborn?"
"Right? Almost as stubborn as Park Unhyeok."
"What was that?"
Kim Seohyun and Park Unhyeok started scuffling.
I watched the Minotaur's corpse—but even as time passed, nothing changed.
Was I being too paranoid?
I turned my back.
In that instant—
I spun around fast. My senses screamed an alarm. Yeokcheon, the power that defies heaven, reacted more sharply than anything else to forces that defied the natural order. Half a beat behind it, Erciel and Kim Seohyun reacted too.
"Everyone run, now!!"
I saw violet flames. A malevolent power washed over us—nothing a living creature should possess.
Death-qi. It was the fire of a death spirit.
[A malicious death-thought has possessed the Minotaur.]
[The death-flame-wreathed Minotaur has marked its targets.]
[The Minotaur, temporarily resurrected from death, rises to a higher order of existence.]
A Minotaur draped in violet flame, its hide black as pitch.
-Urooooooo!!!!!!
It roared. A simple roar, yet within it raged an overwhelming power.
……Oh no.
My body locked up. I swiftly wrapped myself in Yeokcheon and scanned our surroundings. Everyone had frozen solid.
That was what a higher-order existence was. It planted its own power into the world and shook the very laws of reality. With mere intent it could kill ordinary people, and ten opponents of lesser rank attacking together would all be beaten down.
If there was any mercy in this, it was this: the creature's hostility was aimed squarely—and solely—at me.
-……It is because of Yeokcheon. A power that defies heaven draws the hostility of all things that defy the natural order.
And things that don't?
-It draws their hostility as well. For Yeokcheon is a power that negates all things.
Absurd.
I gripped Heukcheon. Black Flash Step. Yeokcheon spread out from beneath my feet and erupted forward.
I need time.
I needed Hong Yuhwa. Seo Gayeon… I wasn't sure. The exam was being broadcast by drone right now, but at this rate Seo Yebin should be able to exert her power. Still—
I have to plan for every contingency.
It was too soon for her to be targeted by the demons. She needed, at the very least, to bring her Starlight Mana into full bloom.
There's a way.
I swept my gaze over the talents, abilities, and techniques of every student here, and studied the Minotaur's capabilities. Countless counter-strategies raced through my mind.
A win rate of about eighty percent.
High. But that left the possibility of failure hanging over us. And no one could be allowed to die in a place like this.
I ran the simulations in my head, fast. I raised my own risk. I lowered everyone else's—worst case, the absolute worst case, being my own death.
Even that isn't enough.
Preparing for the worst was all well and good, but I had also left a gap for Seo Gayeon to use her Starlight Mana.
The enemy was a higher-order existence. It could not be underestimated. This was nothing like the Napakcheon incident. He had stood at a fairly high realm among higher-order beings, but most of his body had been far from whole. The Minotaur, by contrast, had become a higher-order monster while its body remained fully intact.
I looked at Hong Yuhwa. Her talent—the Usurper. If it bloomed completely, the odds might climb a little higher.
"Whew."
I steadied my breath and fixed my eyes forward. Thud. Thud. Thud. Death-flame over jet-black skin. The Minotaur locked its gaze onto me.
I tightened my grip on Heukcheon and settled into my stance. The Sword Demon's senses blared an alarm: one mistake, and my life was forfeit.
When has it ever not been?
With a faint smile, I lunged.
Seo Gayeon watched Lee Seoha with her mouth pressed shut.
Don't use your Starlight Mana. Not yet.
Within those words she felt the steel of his resolve. For an instant, his inner image flickered into her perception—he had abandoned the path that kept his life safe, and staked his own life instead.
It doesn't have to be that way.
He'd said that if she revealed her Starlight Mana, the demons would come for her. But she thought it would be all right anyway. She might lose her life—but even so, she couldn't bear the thought of Lee Seoha putting his on the line.
Quietly, Seo Gayeon readied herself. Readied herself to call upon her Starlight Mana the moment she was needed.
Hong Yuhwa stared straight ahead.
BOOOOM!
A tremendous shockwave rolled through the field. Kim Ara, Kim Seohyun, and Park Unhyeok were racing toward the Minotaur with desperate expressions.
Just a little longer.
Perhaps it was because she had felt that overwhelming presence—her body refused to move properly.
KWA-BOOOOM!
Lee Seoha was fighting the Minotaur. And he was being crushed, hopelessly so—that Lee Seoha. The relaxed poise he always wore was nowhere to be found. He moved with frantic urgency, throwing every means at his disposal into defense—conjuring black swords by the dozen to bar the way, weaving sorcery into barriers to hold the line. And still the Minotaur smashed through everything, hunting Lee Seoha down.
He's really in danger.
Hong Yuhwa clenched her teeth. Her body loosened, just a little.
She stepped forward.
And then—
……What am I supposed to do?
Her specialty was offensive magic. But she couldn't imagine magic working on that thing. Her strikes were devastating, yes—but her specialty was fire-attribute. That much was beyond her control. The red mana she had been born with was simply that kind of power: it could burn flames of lower rank than her own, or flames of equal rank, but against an opponent standing above her, its effectiveness dropped to something almost laughably poor.
Your talent lies somewhere else entirely.
Suddenly, something Lee Seoha had once said echoed in her ears.
My talent?
Yeah. The Usurper.
A peculiar power, that talent. The power to extort what belonged to others—to steal their talents and abilities. It didn't suit her nature at all.
No—who cared about any of that?
Hong Yuhwa stared ahead. Right now, her friends were in danger.
Gripping her grimoire, Hong Yuhwa stepped forward.
Above her head—
a Red Lotus bloomed.